Sunday, May 22, 2011

Slice of Life #53: Helping Hands

One of my sonsbeing helped by his big sister2010

I've always looked for ways for my kids to give service. We've packed school kits as a family, worked in a food kitchen, served Thanksgiving meals to the community, sewed heart pillows for breast cancer patients, collected blankets for earthquake victims in Afghanistan, helped neighbors clean their homes and yards up after both floods and tornadoes, and tied quits for mothers who go home from the hospital without their babies.

Service is good for the soul.

If you or anyone in your family hasn't done anything like that, no worries. Maybe you've contributed to a fund for someone who lost their house in a fire. There are simple acts, like taking food to a sick friend, holding the hand of the bereaved that are lifting to the spirit. Even allowing your teenager to invite a sad friend over to crash on your couch is no small thing. In fact, one of my all time favorite movie scenes is in the movie While You Were Sleeping. Sandra Bullock's character is trying to cheer up Peter, the dude that's been in a coma. He says he's never really done anything truly heroic in his life. She mentions he gives up his seat almost every day on the elevated train. He says, "That's not really heroic." She says, "It is to the person who sits in it." Makes ya think.

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PS I know it seems we did this one before because I thought we had too. I went back to check and we did "Happy Heart Attacks" where we wrote about those who had shown US gratitude. But we haven't written about actual service yet. So, I figured it was about time. ;)

"When we begin to share ourselves with our children, we manifest our love for them better than by any other means."~ Theodore Burton

I have been awarded....

Thank you Irish Eyes!

Greetings!

For the record, this is not my original concept. Cricket originated the idea back in 2007/2008 (?) - however, she stopped the meme in 2009. This blog is different in that she was trying to write a book using the different blogger's posts - I am simply giving a prompt with the hope that you'll share with the rest of us as well as your posterity.

We all know we should write these stories down. So often we don't think we have anything interesting to share. Sometimes working in this venue can jog the memory or creativity, to where we realize we have more to share than we thought we did.